Tuesday, June 16, 2015

A great many structures were named after the 18 June 1815 Battle of Waterloo, whose 200th anniversary we commemorate this week. Many still exist. This doesn't.

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Plate 34.—ROYAL WATERLOO BATH.

This
very elegant floating bath is stationed near the north end of the
Waterloo-bridge, and has recently been built and completed with entirely
new and substantial materials, in a style of superior accommodation, at
a very considerable expense: it contains a plunging-bath, 24 feet long
by 8 feet wide, and two private baths, 10 feet long by 8 feet wide. The
depth may be regulated at pleasure by machinery, which raises or
depresses the bottom as required, secured by cross timbers, and bound
with iron. To each of the baths are attached small dressing-rooms,
commodiously fitted up, with proper persons to attend upon visitors.
These baths are so constructed, that the water, being a running stream,
is changed every two minutes. The advantage of bathing in a flowing
stream is obvious, and gives a decided preference over a cold still
bath, which is frequently dangerous from the violence of the shock. The
terms of bathing, as our readers will see, are extremely moderate: they
are— £ s. d.In the plunging-bath . 0 1 0For the season . . . . . . 1 11 6In the private baths . 0 1 6For the season. . . . . . 2 2 0Constant attendance at Waterloo-bridge to convey visitors to and from the bath.Bathing
is so essentially connected with health, that we cannot but
congratulate the public on this new establishment. It is singular that
so few of the kind should be known in London, while there is scarcely a
street in the French metropolis that has not its cold, warm, vapour,
Chinese, and Tuscan baths, with a variety of others, suiting the
capricious tastes of the inhabitants. Yet how deficient they are in the
most important article connected with bathing everybody knows, while we
have a noble river filled with the purest and most wholesome waters in
the world. The want of baths in London has led to the incommodious and
indecorous practice of public exposure in the Thames.

2
comments:

MrsC, my guess is, people had a better resistance to the filth than we would, because they were exposed to it from infancy. According to Flanders' The Victorian City, "By 1828, nearly 150 sewers were disgorging into the Thames." And even the well-off lived over cesspools. I can't even imagine...

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A Polite Explanation

There’s a big difference in how we use history. But we’re equally nuts about it. To us, the everyday details of life in the past are things to talk about, ponder, make fun of -- much in the way normal people talk about their favorite reality show.

We talk about who’s wearing what and who’s sleeping with whom. We try to sort out rumor or myth from fact. We thought there must be at least three other people out there who think history’s fascinating and fun, too. This blog is for them.